Exclusive: New England Outerwear Company Will Soon Become Maine Mountain Moccasin

The New England Outerwear Company has rebranded itself as Maine Mountain Moccasin. The change will begin to take effect in the next several weeks. But given the brand's success, it's not immediately obvious why a change was needed at all.

New England Outerwear launched in Lewiston, Maine during 2012, and quickly earned an international following. Today nearly 25 percent of all orders ship to Japan, with the likes of The Bureau Belfast, Royal Cheese, and Drake's of London rounding out the remaining overseas roster. Meanwhile, shops including Nepenthes and Portland Dry Goods have anchored retail back home in the States―all while direct-to-consumer sales continue to increase. Additionally, from its inception New England Outerwear evidenced obvious and legitimate "authenticity," that old marketing chestnut that so many companies self-attribute but so few actually have. Dan Heselton and Greg Cordeiro, both New England natives, founded the business with a strong DIY ethic and developed all aspects of the enterprise in-house: branding, design, and most importantly, manufacturing. The guys entrusted operations to Bill Herrick, a master handsewer and Lewiston native who hand-laced at Warren Shoe before heading up the last-room at the original Quoddy, learning plant management under Dave Rancourt at Cole Haan, and then working at the latest iteration of Quoddy before joining Dan and Greg.

With that kind of brand equity, why change the NEOC name? The answer involves the evolution of the original brand vision, Greg's decision to leave, and five years of people asking, "So, where's the outerwear?"

Dan talked to us about his decision to rebrand the company.

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Dan Heselton

The branding change and the progression toward a different logo is really just due to the feedback we've received from wholesale customers and from potential customers at trade shows and in the industry, and the confusion around "outerwear."

Kafka in Scotland, which is one of our O.G. accounts, they were like, "A lot of our younger customers are saying, 'Where is the outerwear? I don't understand the name.'" Kafka were kind of like the catalyst, the first people who really pushed for us to change the name. They never included "Outerwear" on their website. They called us "New England Co." That says a lot.

Also, a surprising amount of people say, "We're not sure if something with the name 'New England' would resonate ..."―in the Pacific Northwest, for instance. It's happened more than enough to be alarming.

Someone Else

The reason it was called "Outerwear" is because when you first started, you intended to do complete outfitting, right?

Dan Heselton

We wanted to do footwear-centric, but have a full head-to-toe offering, kind of like what Visvim does―but not the same at all; it's a different aesthetic. They have their footwear and apparel and outerwear, and they're all merchandised to complement each other. That's what we really wanted to do, and we wanted to make it all here. Then we started this (gesturing around the factory), and this is just (plenty) enough to even think about investing and making a jacket.

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"Is this what we want to do just for the sake of making a jacket?"

Someone Else

But you did do a couple pieces of outerwear, a few years back.

Dan Heselton

We did a jacket for two seasons. One was called the Shoals Break parka the other one was called the Fieldsman. We were completely self-funded, so the investment was gigantic.

Someone Else

And you outsourced that production to a military contractor. That's a different move for you, because when it comes to the shoes, you do everything in your own factory.

Dan Heselton

That whole experience was kind of eye-opening to what big garment manufacturing in the U.S. is. When we were spec'ing out our jackets, we were looking at their assembly line. They were making coats for the Afghan army and probably had 5,000 jackets just rolling through. Looking at the way this particular factory made the product, it was really no different than something I'd get from China or elsewhere that's doing mass production. That's where I ask myself, "Is this what we want to do just for the sake of making a jacket?"

Someone Else

And the QA isn't there, either.

Dan Heselton

No, and their fits were really boxy and had a semi-cheap construction. We could tweak buttons and odds and ends, but we weren't able to really tweak things the way we wanted to. In order to develop a new pattern, the expense was so high. We kind of ran into a big problem with minimums. Their whole line was set up to make as many jackets as possible. They were basically a big Asian manufacturer in the U.S.

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Someone Else

You have a lot going on right now, not only doing the whole Maine Mountain Moccasin rebrand, but also opening the Beaux Biens shop as a flagship for your shoes. Plus, last winter Greg left to design for Clark's, and everything in the company fell to you. Did the new store and rebrand start around the time that you took on more responsibility?

Dan Heselton

It has more to do with the clarity you have when you line everything up yourself. Greg and I were always bouncing ideas and questions off each other. We used to temper those ideas for each other, and it slowed down decision-making. Now I'm finding I have to think through things and then I have to make a decision and move on it quickly.

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"The shoes are gonna remain the same."

Someone Else

Will there be any changes besides the branding? The shoes aren't going to change, I hope.

Dan Heselton

No. The shoes are gonna remain the same. It's really just to ensure that the person who's viewing a pair of these online or in a store somewhere, that there's no confusion as to what the brand's about. I think "Maine Mountain Moccasin" and the branding, it's just very clear what we do when you look at that. If you pick up a shoe with that embossed in the footbed, there's not much room for interpretation. You want to avoid that when you have a brand. You don't want your brand being interpreted in different ways by different people.

Someone Else

I imagine the brand story stays the same. There's no reason for that to change either, right?

Dan Heselton

Yeah, I think so. You're going to see very little change as far as anything to do with our origin story. It's more just gonna be "Maine Mountain Moccasin by New England Outerwear." It's not going to say that, but that same vibe will be there. That's what you'll still get.

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Someone Else

With the logo, what was the thinking? What was the inspiration?

Dan Heselton

I have a million links in a folder of vintage woven labels that I love. I've always liked the scene, whether it's old L.L. Bean or any of those old brands, it's the outline of the mountains, and the hand-drawn nature of old apparel and outerwear logos. That's what I kind of wanted to do. A lot of footwear-brand logos are pretty modern. Even if you look at the new Quoddy logo, it's super modern and their whole imagery is really, really modern. The only one I can think of that has kept that very heritage-looking vibe is Russell Moccasin. I wanted to have something that was really classic-looking but didn't look like it was a cookie-cutter thing.

My wife actually knows a brand designer. She showed us some of her work and I imagined that she would probably be a pretty good match for it. She did about eight or nine drafts in two weeks and had it done. She did it all hand-drawing, all the font and everything.